I have a friend who is a guitar natural, and she joins me for early and folk music once a month. All I have to do is put the chord symbols on, and she takes off. She plays high, she plays low, she plays thick texture, she plays thin. She does little runs. The one thing she almost never does is strum an even blanga-blanga-blang.

I use chord symbols to improvise at the piano. I have devised or borrowed the following:

p - chords don't harmonize. minimize accompaniment

N.C. - no chord

Am! - really hit it!

G +5, play only the tonic and fifth of the chord

G8 - play octave G's, just the G notes, not the G chord

> - this is the 'less than' sign, the closest I can come to the sign in choral music which means 'get softer.'

and finally, the Lemon Mark. I put yellow colored pencil over a note to show that it is dissonant - tangy but not sour, if you will. Waltzes get the most Lemon Marks.

I agree with you that 'Constant Lovers' doesn't lend itself to chords. It moves stepwise too much.

Now I'm off to Texas.